Top Ranked New Entrant | Barley Snyder

Barley Snyder is the top-ranked new entrant in the 2019 NLJ 500, arriving at 417 on this year's list.

Managing partner Jeffrey Lobach said more than a third of the Pennsylvania-based firm's 93 lawyers have joined the firm since he took up his leadership post in January 2014. Lobach said the firm had, in some respects, grown faster than it planned.

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The midsize firm has seven brick-and-mortar offices spread across Pennsylvania and two satellite offices in Maryland. Lobach said the firm expects to formally cross the Mason-Dixon Line and open more permanent offices in Maryland in the near future, but he said it's not considering linking up with a bigger firm—despite consolidation pressures facing many other midsize firms.

"We have no interest [in combining] with a metropolitan firm," Lobach said. "One of the reasons people are coming to us is we have developed a culture of a lot of autonomy. … We don't have a lot of rules."

Lobach said the firm purposefully lacks the kind of top-down command structure typically found at other firms, and its nearly 100 lawyers operate as if they were in one building, despite being spread across the state.

Note to our readers: Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner; Womble Bond Dickinson; and Hunton Andrews Kurth all rank ahead of Barley Snyder, but their antecedent components previously appeared on the 2018 NLJ 500.

Biggest Big Firm Movement | Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough

Super-regional firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, buoyed by a merger with Florida-based Broad and Cassel and the opening of a Baltimore office with lawyers from Miles & Stockbridge, leapt 21 spots in the NLJ 500 rankings from 2018 to 2019, to No. 63—the largest jump of any firm that fell within the top 100 of last year's NLJ 500 rankings.

Adding 173 attorneys in 2018, the firm now has over 700 total attorneys, north of 400 partners and roughly 180 equity partners. The added head count in 2018 represents a 32.3% increase year-over-year, the third-highest percentage growth of any firm on this year's list. "We are certainly happy that things have worked out so well," said Jim Lehman, managing partner of Nelson Mullins. "But what we advertise to our clients is the increased reach and depth that the headcount growth allows."

Lehman said he thought the firm, if it had to be defined, sat somewhere between a super-regional and national firm, but that growth for growth's sake was not at the heart of their expansion.

"If you look at our trajectory over the past 10 years, we have been a safe harbor for attorneys after the financial crisis," he said. "But our goal is not to be a specific size. When firms forget it is all about the client, they forget why we are here."

Biggest Head Count Gains | Clark Hill

Clark Hill's head count grew by 45% last year, outpacing every other firm in the 2019 NLJ 500. Much of the legacy Michigan firm's growth in 2018 came from its decision to combine with Texas-based Strasburger & Price, which added close to 200 attorneys to Clark Hill's ranks from across the Lone Star State, New York, Washington, D.C., and Mexico City.

The tie-up brought nearly 170 Texas lawyers under the Clark Hill banner, spread across six offices in Austin, Beaumont, Dallas, Frisco, Houston and San Antonio.

Clark Hill CEO John Hern said the strategic focus on Texas was the result of a desire to go where its existing clients are now and where they plan to soon be, and to bolster Clark Hill's existing roster in other markets.

Clark Hill's rapid growth was not a flash in the pan in 2018, but the result of aggressive expansion unfolding over the course of the last few years.

The firm has been growing steadily in recent years, boosting its place in the NLJ 500 rankings from 138 in 2017 to 109 last year, and now placing 81st. Clark Hill jumped more places in the 2019 NLJ 500 rankings than any other firm entering the top 100 this year.

"I don't think that you'll see that level of growth occurring in 2019," Hern said. "I think our intention at the moment is to focus on delivering that value to our clients."

Biggest Head Count Losses | McKool Smith

McKool Smith saw a 17.5% decrease in overall head count from 2017 to 2018—the largest percentage decline among this year's NLJ 500 firms—losing a net of 31 attorneys over the course of the year.

Hovering around the low-200 mark in the NLJ's head count rankings for the last five years, the firm saw a precipitous drop this year, descending from No. 221 in the 2018 NLJ 500 rankings down to No. 273 in 2019. The 52-place drop tied for the third-largest decline in the NLJ 500 over the last year.

McKool Smith now has 80 total partners (42 equity and 38 nonequity), 62 associates and four attorneys listed as "other," bringing its total count to 146, down from 177 in 2017. However, while McKool Smith acknowledged the head count decline, the firm also emphasized its growth in some core areas.

"Over the last year, we have seen some colleagues leave for a range of personal and professional reasons," David Sochia, managing principal of McKool Smith, said in a statement. "But we have also welcomed new attorneys in strategic areas, like the energy group led by Willie Wood in Houston that came aboard earlier this year. We feel our firm has never been in stronger shape."